Fault in Divorce in the Historical Context of Divorce Legislation in Slovakia

Abstract

Being a union of a man and a woman, marriage is a lifelong union of two persons of different sex which can also be defined as the only union permitted by law which is concluded and dissolved in the manner prescribed by law. A significant year for the development of matrimonial law in Slovakia was 1894, when Article XXXI on matrimonial law came into force in the territory of Slovakia. The dissolution of marriage represented the cessation of the existence of the conjugal union at two levels, namely the factual dissolution, represented by a separation from bed and board, and the legal dissolution of the marriage in form of a legal separation. In Slovakia, there had already been grounds for admissibility of divorce/separation. However, Act No. 36/2005 Coll. on Family, as amended, has brought significant changes to the Slovak legislation in the field of family law. The new legislation has also been necessitated by social developments.